


Four's a Crowd

by noiproksa



Series: Angels [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Jealous Castiel (Supernatural), Jealous Dean Winchester, Misunderstandings, Protective Dean Winchester, Self-Made Family, Team Free Will (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-01-12 17:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noiproksa/pseuds/noiproksa
Summary: Angels do not get jealous. And even if they did, Castiel would not be jealous of Dean and Sam falling all over themselves to accommodate the new angel refugee who turned up at the bunker.(Intended as gen, but can be read as Destiel pre-slash.)





	1. Chapter 1

“There’s an angel at the door, says he knows you,” Dean said as he walked into the library where Castiel and Sam were currently talking about possible leads they had on a hunt. “Jemeriel or something?”

Castiel furrowed his brows. He knew Jeremiel, yes, but it had been centuries since they had last spoken to each other. What could he possibly want from him?

“So… Should I chase him away or…”

Dean’s voice brought him out of his thoughts and Castiel realized that he hadn’t answered him. He quickly said, “I know him.”

Without another word he abruptly got up and walked out of the library towards the entrance of the bunker. He was vaguely aware of the fact that Sam and Dean were following him close behind.

The front door was closed. Castiel had to smile to himself. It was just like Dean to close the door on a strange angel. Castiel wouldn’t have taken a stranger at his word either.

When Castiel opened the door, Jeremiel was smiling brightly at him. His vessel was new, of course—a tall man with the first strands of grey in his hair—but his eyes were familiar. Once upon a time, Castiel wouldn’t have thought twice about the vessel. Now, though, he wondered who the vessel had been before he had given his body over to an angel.

“Castiel!” Jeremiel said, reaching out to touch his shoulder by way of greeting. “It is so good to see you, old friend!”

“And you, Jeremiel,” Castiel replied, still confused as to what he was doing here. They had never been close up in Heaven. But Castiel had been an outcast for so long that it was refreshing to see an angel who did not despise him or want to kill him.

“It has been too long,” Jeremiel stressed as he put his other hand on Castiel’s other shoulder, gazing into his eyes, letting his grace reach out to touch Castiel’s in a customary angel greeting.

Someone cleared their throat behind him and Castiel remembered that Dean and Sam were still there. He turned around to them as best he could with Jeremiel holding him in place, but before he could make the introductions, Dean was already speaking up.

“So, what’re you doing here?” he addressed Jeremiel and then winced when Sam jabbed him in the ribs for some reason. He rubbed his side, glaring at Sam.

Castiel, who was used to their odd behavior, turned back around to Jeremiel, who had let go of him to take a step back and look at the humans behind Castiel.

“I am in need of refuge. I immediately thought of Castiel who has been cast out of Heaven as well.”

Dean’s eyes narrowed instantly. “Why, what did you do?” he asked, just as Sam said, “Why don’t we go inside. Come on in.”

Castiel didn’t want to turn a fellow angel in need away, but of course he couldn’t invite him into Dean and Sam’s home, so he was relieved when Sam offered.

Inside, Dean asked some more questions as Castiel showed his brother around the bunker, but Jeremiel didn’t seem to mind, telling them that Heaven wasn’t what it used to be and that problems with management had gotten him kicked out.

“Not as comfortable as Heaven,” Jeremiel noted when Castiel showed him his room. “But it will do.”

Castiel didn’t know how to respond to that—what would do?—, so he simply shrugged his shoulders. He knew that most of his brothers and sisters didn’t approve of his lifestyle, but he couldn’t quite get a read on Jeremiel.

The next few hours were spent catching up, telling each other what had happened during the last few centuries. Since Dean didn’t leave them out of his sight, Castiel had to remind himself more than once that he had to talk to Jeremiel in English as to not make Sam and Dean feel excluded.

At the end of the day, since Jeremiel had nowhere to go, Sam was again the one to offer him to stay the night.

“Humans tend to sleep at night,” Castiel explained. “But you can stay in my room and tell me what is going on in Heaven.”

“Even if his room isn’t up to heavenly standards,” Dean threw in, again getting jabbed by Sam in the ribs for his comment.

When Sam and Dean went to bed, Castiel and Jeremiel could switch to speaking in Enochian at last. It was nice to have someone to talk to at night, and best of all, Castiel finally had someone to groom his wings.

They were sitting on Castiel’s bed in comfortable silence while Jeremiel was straightening out the feathers Castiel couldn’t quite reach. They had been uncomfortable for quite a while. Castiel thought he heard something, but when he turned around, the door was closed and there was no one else in the room.

***

Even Dean had apparently gotten over his paranoia and was civil towards Jeremiel. More than civil as a matter of fact.

“Hey, Jem,” he called out the next morning when Castiel and Jeremiel entered the kitchen, where Sam and Dean were having breakfast.

Dean had come up with that nickname and was only ever calling Jeremiel by that name. Castiel didn’t know what to think of that. He had learned that humans used pet names to show that they cared about each other. Dean hadn’t even known Jeremiel for one day, which Castiel knew was even for humans a short amount of time.

Dean threw a key at Jeremiel, which he caught and inspected closely. “I thought maybe you want your own room to sleep in,” Dean said, taking another spoonful of cereal and smiling brightly.

“We don’t sleep at all,” Castiel corrected Dean.

Somehow, the idea of Dean offering Jeremiel his own room did not sit well with him. It had taken a while until he, himself, had been offered a room of his own. And they had never said that Jeremiel would stay with them _forever_. Of course, Castiel should be happy that Dean was so nice to his brother. So he pushed away any confusing thoughts and emotions. Instead, he reminded himself that he was glad to have another angel in the bunker.

Dean smiled even brighter around his spoon. Apparently, he had decided he liked Jeremiel. Enough that he got his own pet name and even a room in the bunker. Castiel forced himself to smile back at Dean to show how happy he was that Dean got along with his brother so well.  


	2. Chapter 2

Dean had hated the guy since he had shown up on their doorstep out of the blue. The way he pretended to be best buds with Cas, talking about a lifetime they had shared before Dean had even been born made him grind his teeth. But, as Sam had pointed out, it was Cas’ friend and every friend of Cas’ should be a friend of theirs as well.

After Sam had so carelessly offered Jeme… Jere… _Jem—_ no sense learning his stupid name!—to stay the night, Dean wasn’t able to fall asleep. After lying awake for what felt like hours, he decided to go by Cas’ room and make sure Jem didn’t turn out to be an angel-murdering bastard after all, no matter what he said.

Cas and Jem were sitting on the bed… _cuddling_ for lack of a better word. What. The. Hell. They were so engrossed in—was Jem giving Cas a _backrub_?—that they didn’t even notice Dean, who quickly shut the door again.

Angels. He had never observed them in their natural habitat, so who knew? Maybe that’s just what they did, sitting around all day, groping each other inappropriately. Only Dean’s gut knew better. Jem clearly had some ulterior motive, trying to take over as Cas’ best friend or get him to turn against them or… some other kind of nefarious plan Dean would be sure to thwart.

That’s why Dean spent the rest of the night searching for a room far away from Cas’ and making it inhabitable for Jem so that he wouldn’t have an excuse to spend another night in Cas’ room trying to… do whatever his plan entailed.

When he gave Jem the key the next morning, Sam shot him a disapproving look, but Cas didn’t seem to catch on to Dean’s motives. So, it was a win-win really. He had successfully thwarted Jem’s plan and at the same time he had scored brownie points with Cas for being a good host to his brother.

When he showed Jem his room later that day, he was finally alone with him for once and prompted, trying to go for levity, “So. You and Cas seem rather touchy-feely.”

Jem fixed him with an unreadable expression. After a beat of silence, he said, “As you know, angels need a lot of physical contact, especially when in a human vessel.”

Since when? “Yeah. Absolutely. I knew that.”

Was that just a lame-ass excuse to cover for his villainous plan Dean still hadn’t figured out? There was really no way of knowing unless he asked Cas about it. But then he’d have to confess to having accidentally spied on them and he didn’t really want to lose his brownie points.

Jem was still looking at Dean with that creepy-ass expression that made Dean want to tell him to cut it out. Only Cas was allowed to look at him like that.

“Castiel tried to explain the concept of personal space to me. Angels would never keep from touching or standing close to each other. I still do not quite understand the reason behind building an invisible wall around yourselves that others should stay out of. It is unnatural for angels.”

Dean could just imagine Cas explaining personal space like that and he had to smile to himself. He had given up on reminding Cas to keep out of his personal space a long time ago, and nowadays they felt completely at ease in each other’s space.

“Yeah, well, Cas has friends for the whole ‘physical contact’ thing, so…” he trailed off, but hoped that the _Back off!_ came through loud and clear. The sour expression on Jem’s face told him that it did. _Yeah, buddy. I’m onto you._

Somewhere in the back of his head, he could hear a voice that sounded a lot like Sam’s tell him not to piss off Cas’ friend, but if he was such a great friend, how come they hadn’t seen or heard from him before?

***

A few days later (Jem didn’t seem to think about moving out anytime soon) Dean was searching the bunker for Cas and Jem when Sam cornered him in the control room and rattled off some facts about a hunt he had found. Dean hardly paid attention to the details. He had been sold as soon as Sam had said “possible werewolf case.” A hunt sounded great. Being cooped up in the bunker with an angel who was well on his way to becoming Dean’s new nemesis was taking its toll on him.

“…Cas can keep an eye on Jeremiel in the meantime.”

“Wait, wait, wait— _what_?” Dean interrupted when Sam’s words registered. “No way are we gonna leave Cas alone with him. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Dean…”

“Nuh-uh. Ain’t gonna happen. Angels are coming with.”

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”

“It’s a horrible idea. I’m sure Jem will mess everything up.—Beats the alternative, though.”

At that moment, the two angels walked into the control room together, talking to each other in Enochian—something else that pissed Dean right off. What the hell were they talking about when they used their secret language?

“Oh, hey Cas,” Dean said cheerfully, interrupting their bonding time. “We thought maybe Jem would like to come on a hunt with us.”

Cas looked up and narrowed his eyes at him. He didn’t seem impressed. Yeah, he was probably seeing right through Dean and his less than honorable motives as always.

***

Castiel was not impressed with Dean’s suggestion. Now they wanted to take Jeremiel on a _hunt_? It had taken Castiel _years_ to be considered a worthy partner for a hunt. Then again, Jeremiel had caught on very quickly. Castiel had explained to him what he had learned in his years on Earth, and Jeremiel had adapted with ease. It had taken him less than a day to figure out how to operate human technology like cell phones, remote controls and coffee machines.

How could Jeremiel be so much better at human stuff than Castiel, even though Castiel had been on Earth for the last few years and Jeremiel had not?

“That sounds like fun,” Jeremiel said. “Castiel has told me all about hunting.”

“It is not as easy as it sounds,” Castiel warned him. “You should keep in the background and watch.”

“That’s a good idea, actually,” Sam agreed and Castiel was happy that he had at least one of the Winchesters on his side.

Only, of course Jeremiel did not turn out to be as useless as Castiel had been on his first hunt.

First, Jeremiel was the one who got the witness to calm down. Castiel, who had never been that great at interacting with humans—other humans than Dean and Sam, that is—redoubled his efforts when they asked around town for leads, but most humans just thought him weird.

Next, Jeremiel helped figure out where the werewolf was hiding. By that time, Castiel was desperate to show Dean and Sam that he could be helpful, too. In his eagerness to impress his humans, he used too much of his grace, which was even more embarrassing when the werewolf evaded his attack and Castiel brought the wall it had been standing next to crumbling down instead.

So then Jeremiel was the one to smite the werewolf while Castiel was incapacitated. Since Castiel had exhausted his own grace, Jeremiel even healed Sam who had gotten a bit banged up, too.

On their way back to the Impala, Dean and Sam didn’t stop praising Jeremiel for what a good job he had done.

“Great job, Jem. You should definitely come along more often,” Dean said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Castiel was very proud of his brother. He was sure the strange feeling in his stomach was pride or at least happiness. He assumed a mixture of those emotions was supposed to feel like knots in his vessel’s stomach.

Still, he glared at Dean’s hand that was squeezing Jeremiel’s shoulder, and felt his wings twitch with… happiness. Definitely happiness.

***

Dean had to admit that he was surprised that Jem hadn’t been in their way. Had, in fact, been helpful. Beginner’s luck.

Sam thanked Jem for saving them, polite as ever, and sent Dean a meaningful look, so Dean told Jem what a good job he had done, not only to appease Sam, but for Cas’ benefit as well. _Look at me, being besties with your bestie._

Still, he squeezed Jem’s shoulder a bit too tightly to let him know, _I know what you’re up to_. (Even though he didn’t.)

That evening Dean decided to share his suspicions about Jem with Sam so he called for a brother meeting in his room. For some reason, Sam didn’t seem to take his worries seriously.

“Cas is allowed to have other friends besides us,” he said as if that were in any way what this was about.

“All I’m saying is something is fishy about this guy.—How did he even find out about the bunker? It’s not like Cas gave him the address. I mean, should we expect more angel company now?”

“Aren’t angels able to… sense each other?” Sam asked. “And anyway, what do you want to do, angelproof the bunker?”

“Kind of impossible, we can’t angelproof it without proofing it against Cas.”

Before Sam could reply, there was a knock on the door.

Dean exchanged a quick questioning look with Sam before he went to open the door. Jeremiel. Figured.

“Where’s Cas?” Dean asked, holding back the “What did you do to him?”

“Resting,” Jem answered. “Castiel is weak.”

“ _You’re_ weak,” Dean mumbled and took a step to the side in order to evade Sam’s elbow.

Luckily, Jem hadn’t heard (or more likely chose to ignore) Dean’s comment and went on, “He shouldn’t have been taken out by a lowly werewolf. As you know, when angels stay away from Heaven for too long, their powers decrease. Do you really want to be responsible for him getting weaker and weaker?”

“Listen, _buddy_. I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing…” Dean started, fed up with this angel and his insinuations that they weren’t good enough for Cas.

Again he was ignored by Jem, who interrupted him. “As you know, angels need one another to groom each other’s wings. No wonder Castiel’s wings don’t heal.”

Dean snorted. “I don’t see _you_ flying around.”

“At least my wings are in better shape than Castiel’s.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Nice brag. Wanna put your money where your mouth is?”

Jem was studying him for a second, but then he nodded. Dean had no idea how he could understand idioms so much better than Cas, but he didn’t like it. Had it been Cas, he’d have tilted his head in his adorably confused fashion by now and stated that he didn’t have any money.

Instead, Jem said, “I can show you.”

The next second, the lights began to flicker and huge shadowy wings appeared behind Jem on the walls of Dean’s room.

Dean hadn’t seen Cas’ wings in forever. So there was no way for him to tell whether Jem was telling the truth and his wings actually were in better shape.

Before he could comment on it one way or another, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and when he turned his head, he saw Cas standing in the door to his room, his blue eyes flashing with barely concealed anger.


	3. Chapter 3

Castiel’s grace was still recovering when they came back from the hunt. Sam and Dean snuck off, maybe celebrating their win, and Castiel just wanted to forget the whole embarrassing day.

“This is no way of living, Castiel,” Jeremiel said as soon as they arrived at Castiel’s room.

“I am fine, Jeremiel,” Castiel said as he sat down on his bed. “I will be fine,” he amended. He just needed to catch his breath. And nurse his injured pride in peace.

“I wasn’t going to mention it yet,” Jeremiel started haltingly. “But I think I may have a way for us to return home.”

Castiel did not know what to think of that, much less what to say, but Jeremiel already continued, “We are angels. We belong in Heaven.”

“I haven’t belonged there in a long time,” Castiel objected. If Jeremiel had found a way to repent and be accepted in Heaven again, that would be excellent news, though.

“You would much rather wither away here on Earth?” Jeremiel asked disbelievingly.

“I would much rather recharge my batteries in peace,” Castiel said. Only when Jeremiel was looking at him with a confused frown did he realize that he had used Dean’s way of saying ‘wait for my grace to replenish.’ So he clarified, “Go to your own room, Jeremiel. We can talk in the morning.” For once, he was glad that Dean had given Jeremiel a room of his own.

Jeremiel was looking as if he wanted to say something else, but then he shook his head and left Castiel’s room.

Sighing in relief, Castiel lay down on his bed. These last few days, he had been together with Jeremiel almost constantly. It was nice to be rid of him for once. After a while, he realized that this would be his opportunity to go and find Dean. They hadn’t had one of their talks in a few days and Castiel realized that he missed him, even though they saw each other every day. But since Jeremiel was there every time as well, they hadn’t had the chance to really talk to each other.

When he reached Dean’s room, the door was open and what he saw made him freeze in the doorway. Jeremiel was standing in front of Dean and Sam, the shadows of his wings exposed in a display of dominance behind him on the wall, flickering lights showcasing and accentuating them.

Castiel went into fight mode instantly, taking out his angel blade, ready to protect Dean and Sam.

“Whoa, Cas,” Sam said, holding out his hands. “Jem was just showing us his wings.”

In an instant Jeremiel’s wings were invisible for humans once more and Castiel stood inside the door to Dean’s room, angel blade still in hand, feeling utterly ridiculous and out of place.

“Oh,” was all he managed to get out.

Dean seemed like he wanted to say something, but he refrained, looking… disappointed? Castiel lowered his eyes. He hated disappointing Dean.

An uncomfortable silence followed, but Castiel didn’t care. Because that was the moment he remembered why he had never really been friends with Jeremiel back in Heaven and why they hadn’t spoken to each other for hundreds of years. Jeremiel had always been after Castiel’s things, always trying to one-up him.

Castiel wanted nothing more than to tell Jeremiel that he should stay away from his humans, he couldn’t have them! But Dean and Sam had invited Jeremiel into their home and clearly enjoyed his company. They weren’t Castiel’s possessions to keep, and Dean was disappointed enough in him as it was.

So instead, Castiel put the angel blade away and mumbled, “My apologies.”

***

After that strange incident, Dean lay awake half the night, thinking about what had happened. Angels usually showed their wings to impress their opponents, didn’t they? Did that mean that Cas had thought they had been fighting? And if so, had he come to _Jem’s_ aid or to theirs? Under normal circumstances, he knew Cas would always be on their side. But Jem was his brother and they were talking in their secret language and offering each other ‘physical contact,’ which apparently they needed while in their human vessels – a fact Cas had kept to himself all these years.

Wrestling with his bedspread, Dean thought about getting up and just asking Cas why he had whipped out his angel blade. But he didn’t, afraid of what the answer might be.

Since he had hardly been able to sleep, Dean was awake as early as Sam the next morning. The angels were nowhere to be seen, so while he was sipping his coffee, he complained, “I’ve been trying, but he’s just such a dick. ‘As you know this, as you know that.’ He knows damn well that we _don’t_ know, he’s just trying to rub our noses in and make us feel bad ’cause we’re not _angels_ and apparently can’t give Cas what he needs. That’s such bullshit. We’ve managed just fine without him.”

“We do get some useful information, though. I mean, Cas never told us any of these things.”

Dean groaned. “You’re _still_ on his side?”

“Well, he is still Cas’ friend. Would it kill you to play nice for him?”

Before Dean could convince Sam that Jem wasn’t that good a friend to Cas, Sam nodded towards the door, where Cas had entered. He didn’t seem to be in a great mood. Maybe he still thought Dean and Jem weren’t getting along because of the whole wing incident – which was the truth, of course, but Dean didn’t want to be the reason for Cas’ foul mood. So Dean could suck it up and pretend for a while longer. He just hoped douchebag would pack up his things and move on, soon. Time to plaster on a smile and fake his way through another conversation.

“Hey, have you seen Jem? He’s awesome! I just wanted to ask him if he wanted to hang out.”

Sam was shooting him a dark look that clearly said, _Dial it down a bit_. Okay, that had been a bit over the top. Even Cas was narrowing his eyes at him. Shit.

“I believe he is in his room,” Cas answered, deadpan.

Great, now he had to go find that dick so that he didn’t blow his cover. “Great! I’ll just…” Dean waved in the direction of the living quarters and then reluctantly got up, leaving his half-empty cup of coffee behind.

He could just go to his own room and avoid talking to Jem, of course, but then his lie might get revealed if Jem chose to join Cas and Sam in the kitchen. So instead, Dean actually went to Jem’s room.

Just as he was about to knock, he heard Jem’s voice, talking in Enochian. The door was ajar and so Dean carefully took a step closer and peeked inside. Jem was standing with his back to the door, his head tilted upwards as if in prayer. Dean caught Castiel’s name among all the Enochian. Jem stopped talking, tilting his head even farther back, and Dean quickly took a step back.

When Jem started spouting off in Enochian again, Dean spun on his heel and hurried back to the kitchen. Let Sam try to justify _that_.


	4. Chapter 4

When Dean entered the kitchen, ready to rub Sam’s nose in the fact that he had been right about Jem all along, Cas was still there, now sitting at the table with Sam.

“That was quick,” Sam said, grinning knowingly. “So, does he want to ‘hang out’?”

Dean shook his head as he sat down and took another sip of his now lukewarm coffee, thinking about how he could delicately broach the subject without upsetting Cas.

“I am sure he likes you just fine,” Cas said, a strange edge to his voice.

Dean had no idea what to make of that comment, so he chose to ignore it and, taking a deep breath, he forged ahead.

“I think he’s up to something. He said he’s cut off from the other angels, but I just saw him pray to someone in Enochian and… I’m really sorry, Cas, I know you probably don’t believe…”

“Yes. He is trouble,” Cas immediately agreed. “You should send him away.”

Wait, what? “Wait, what?” That was far too easy. “ _We_? He’s _your_ pal.”

“You are the ones who are in love with him,” Cas countered.

“In… _what_?” Dean looked at Sam for an explanation, but his brother seemed as taken aback as he was. “He is your friend,” Dean repeated, since his mind couldn’t compute what was going on.

“And _you_ immediately offered him a room to move into, taking him on hunts and ogling his wings…”

“Cas,” Sam finally joined in, and Dean nodded in agreement before he had even said anything because he really hoped Sam could make sense of this conversation. “Are you jealous?”

Dean stopped mid-nod and gaped at Sam. What? That was ridiculous, that didn’t make any sense, that…

“Of course not,” Cas answered just as Dean tried to look at the events of the last few days with different eyes and came to the conclusion that it actually did make a little bit of sense.

“Angels do not get jealous,” Cas continued. “Only a human would think in such… human categories. I merely don’t care for hearing you say how great Jeremiel is, how useful he is on hunts, how much better he is at understanding references…”

“Sure,” Dean interrupted him, feeling a smile spread across his face. “As long as you’re not jealous.”

“We don’t… like him better or anything,” Sam reassured Cas carefully. “We were just nice to him because he’s your friend.”

“Which was actually Sam’s idea,” Dean clarified and then turned towards his brother. “Nice going. You can be proud of yourself for making an angel jealous. Gotta be some kind of a record.” Turning back around to Cas, he added, “Isn’t jealousy like a sin or something?”

“I am not jealous,” Cas repeated, glowering at Dean.

Dean, who hadn’t been in that good a mood since before Jem had arrived at the bunker, grinned even wider. “Well, not anymore. Now that you know that you’re still our number one angel and all.”

Cas rolled his eyes, but he could deny it all he wanted, Dean knew it when he saw a jealous angel (well, he did once Sam pointed it out at least). Dean was bouncing on his feet, thinking about all the possible ways he could tease Cas with that knowledge.

“If it makes you feel better,” Sam said, addressing Cas, “Dean was jealous, too.”

“What?!” Dean asked, whirling around to stare at Sam. “I was not! I just knew Jem was up to something—and I was right.”

“What did you hear him say?” Cas asked, steering the discussion in a new direction.

“No idea. I don’t speak Enochian.”

The only logical course of action was for Cas to read Dean’s mind in order to find out what Jem had said. So while Sam was on the lookout, making sure that Jem didn’t surprise them by walking in on them, Cas was standing behind Dean’s chair, carefully holding his head in his hands.

Dean saw Jem in his room again, talking in Enochian, but of course he still couldn’t understand a word of what the angel was saying. He heard Cas’ voice invading his mind, though, as he translated.

“…not succeeded in the mission, yet. Castiel does not intend to return to Heaven.—I understand, but the humans are not easy to convince, either. They have…”

That’s when Dean had turned away and retreated. Cas let go of Dean’s head and Dean came back to the present.

“Son of a bitch,” he said. He had known Jem was bad news from the get-go.

At that moment, they heard Sam’s voice, louder than necessary, “Jeremiel. Good morning. Let’s enter the kitchen together.”

A few seconds later, Sam and Jem did just that. Jem barely managed to greet them before Cas took a step forward, glowering at him. Dean half expected him to show off his wings, but Cas managed to hold back.

“These are my humans. Go find your own!”

“Possessive much?” Dean mumbled.

Cas said something else, but he had switched to Enochian, and Dean quickly stepped in, “Hey, hey! None of that! English, please!”

“You think I want _them_?” Jem said, making a dismissive gesture towards Dean and Sam.

“No,” Dean answered, taking a step forward himself so that he was standing next to Cas. “We think you want Cas. But you can’t have him either.” He put a possessive hand on Cas’ shoulder to underline his words. (If Cas was allowed to show possessive behavior, then so was he.)

Sam nodded, joining them. “He’s our angel. Go find your own,” he repeated what Cas had said about them.

Jem ignored them and addressed Cas instead. “Heaven needs you, Castiel.”

“Don’t you try to guilt trip him into going with you,” Dean warned him.

“Jeremiel…” Cas said, more softly than Dean would have liked. “This is where I belong.”

“Damn right,” Dean agreed, giving Cas’ shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

“If you change your mind…” Jem tried one last time, but Cas shook his head just as Sam took another step forward.

“I believe you know the way out?”

Dean grinned, proud of his little brother. He had been the one to invite Jem in, it seemed fitting that he would be the one to throw his ass out.

They accompanied Jem to the control room to make sure he actually left. Once he was gone, Dean didn’t quite know what to say.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to come up with anything, since Cas was the first one to speak up.

“I should apologize. It seems like more often than not when my brothers and sisters are involved, things go belly-down.”

“Up,” Dean corrected automatically. This was how things were meant to be. The fact that Cas did not understand idioms or references—they didn’t like him _less_ for it. If at all possible, they might like him more because of it.

When Cas tilted his head at him, he said, “Things go belly… No, you know what? First of all, that’s not your fault. And second, I know that despite everything, you were still happy at the beginning to have an angel you can do all those angel things with. So… I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you.”

Cas inclined his head. “The idea was nice. But I don’t care that you’re not angels. You are my family anyway.”

Dean smiled at him. Then he remembered Jem’s words, _Angels need a lot of physical contact, especially when in a human vessel_ , and he laid a hand on Cas’ shoulder. Cas was looking at the hand, probably wondering what it was doing, making itself at home on his shoulder. But he didn’t say anything and so Dean left it there, even when he steered Cas towards the library.

He could make him search for a case or something while he had to find a way to communicate to Sam that they should look for a way for humans to groom an angel’s wings. Damn right, they were Cas’ family—and as such, they could jump in and do all those angel things for Cas, even if he didn’t ask for it.

While they would be working on the wing grooming part, Dean at least had the ‘physical contact’ part covered already. Smiling to himself, he wrapped his whole arm around Cas as they walked side by side, as always.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that I wrote the ‘touching trope’ in there yet again (because it is one of my all-time favorites), but I hope you’re not too bored by it yet. I’ll try to tone it down a bit.
> 
> I also hope some of you liked it? I was very unsure about posting this one. I love jealous!Dean and jealous!Cas and also misunderstandings all over, but I’m not sure if I nailed what I was going for here… Might have to come back to that trope in a different way some day.
> 
> Anyway, as always, I’d love to hear from you and maybe I’ll see you next week for the final chapter of  
> ‘Unthought Known.’ <3


End file.
